Halide Edip Adivar

Halide Edip Adivar

Country

Turkey

Known for

Turkish Feminist and Author

Dates

Hijri 1299-1384 (AH); Common Era 1882-1964 (CE)

Halide Edip Adivar

Biography

Born in Istanbul to a prominent family, Halide Edip Adivar was a prominent female author of Turkish literature and a feminist.
Adivar began writing for various Turkish publications in 1908 including “Tanin,” “Mehasin,” “Musavver Muhit,” and “Resimli,” but a political article she wrote in “Tanin” caused her to recieve threats and she fled to Egypt with her family, where developed acquaintances with other literary lights.
A year later, she published her first two novels which appeared as serials in various newspapers.
After divorcing her husband, she remarried Abdülhak Adnan Adivar, who was a prominent political figure of the time. This marriage allowed her the opportunity to take an active role in the turbulent political scene of the rapidly disintegrating Ottoman Empire. Her writing voiced her support to the major national popular movements.
She cemented her reputation as a national hero and supporter of national liberation after delivering a speech at a rally in Istanbul following the occupation of Izmir by the Greek army in 1919. During this time, she worked alongside the future president of Turkey Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. Themes which ruled her years during this time, like political activism and feminine power, were present in her twenty-five or so novels, two novels, and were discussed in her memoirs.
After leaving Turkey following the War of Independence to live in England and France, she returned in 1939 to establish the English Language and Literature Department of Istanbul University. Between 1950-1954, she acted as the deputy for the Democratic Party.